Opportunities
by eyha
Summary: Bianca, feeling heartbroken from being rejected after confessing her feelings, calls one of her friends for comfort. Can she take advantage of the new opportunity that this brings? Bianca/Hilbert


**Hello to everyone reading this. I decided to branch out into Pokemon for the first time. I decided to write this after failing to find any stories that actually have a Bianca/Hilbert pairing with a happy ending (I'm a bit hopeless like that). The characters (well Bianca, considering Hilbert and Hilda don't actually have personalities) may seem a little OOC. Sorry if the story feels a little long. Writing on an Itouch actually is easier than it seems. Oh well... Hope you enjoy!**

**Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, Nintendo and associated companies etc. do.**

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><p><span>Opportunities<span>

It was a warm sunny afternoon in Nuvema Town. The Pidove were chirping quietly in the trees, the waves were quietly lapping at the shore, and the townspeople were taking advantage of the weather to relax outside. All in all, a very nice day.

Well, a very nice day for almost everyone. The same could not be said for a girl lying face-down on the bed in her room, who was currently taking a departure from her normal cheerful and slightly ditzy personality, instead choosing to cry her eyes out. Her name was Bianca, and as for the cause of her distress, it was mystery to everyone except herself. Her parents didn't even know that she was upset in the first place. There was no way she was even considering telling them what the problem was, considering how protective they were of her. She wouldn't be surprised if they decided to hunt down whoever upset her in the first place.

The only person who currently did actually know of her misery was the boy sitting on the swivel chair in her room, who was currently occupied with patting her back awkwardly and wondering why she didn't call her female best friend instead, considering how badly he sucked at sensitivity and stuff. His name was really Hilbert, but he would probably hit you if you actually called him that, so everyone called him Blair. Though he had been one of Bianca's best friends since they were young children, he still wasn't quite sure how of how to comfort her.

"So, erm Bianca, just why are you upset in the first place?" asked Blair hesitantly, quickly realising afterwards that he had probably been a little too blunt.

Bianca paused, her body tense for a few seconds, before burying her head in her pillow and refusing to reply.

Blair sighed slightly, "I know you don't want to tell me, but I think it would be good for you if you did. At least that way you'd be able to share your problem with someone else..." He paused, as Bianca remained stubbornly silent, "Please tell me this at least: is it to do with Cheren?" It had been fairly obvious that she'd had a crush on him for the last few months.

Bianca looked up from her pillow at him, face completely inscrutable, before eventually levering herself up and sitting cross-legged on the bed. She then nodded, slowly and slightly. "I finally managed to tell him how I feel about him," she told him, but then she sniffed, hugged her legs to her chest in the foetal position and buried her head in the hollow, "but he's interested in someone else. I should have realised before..."

"Really, who is it? I hadn't even noticed."

"Promise you won't get angry at him?" Bianca suddenly asked, her head cocked slightly and a worried expression on her face.

"Why would I get angry?" asked Blair, confused by this sudden shift of topic from her to him.

"Well, it's kind of, err... Whitlea," she said in a small voice, referring to their mutual friend, whom she suspected was soon to be in a relationship with Blair, if they weren't secretly dating already.

"Really? That's great!" Blair smiled, much to the surprise of Bianca, who was kind of expecting a more aggressive reaction to this news.

"Didn't you like Whitlea too?" she asked curiously.

"As a friend, yes. In a romantic way, no."

"Oh. How come you spend so much time with her then?"

"She likes to have someone to rant on about how apparently no guys are paying any attention to her except me. She's also been helping me with- err, never mind," he quickly changed the subject, "You know, I think she likes Cheren too."

Bianca frowned. What wasn't he telling her that he told Whitlea? She quickly shook away her jealousy. There had been a time when she had a crush on the admittedly cute brunette, but then she accepted that he was already pretty much the property of her best friend and so decided to focus her attentions elsewhere. Now that she had been rejected by the focus of said attentions and it turned out that said best friend wasn't even interested in her original crush in the first place, she didn't know what to think anymore. After a pause, spent thinking of something appropriate to say to him, she gave up and fell back down onto her back, staring up at the ceiling.

"So... do you think Cheren and Whitlea will be getting together anytime soon?" asked Blair hesitantly, attempting to break the awkward silence.

Bianca frowned up at the ceiling. "Maybe," she admitted, for some reason annoyed by this change in topic. She wished that he would at least show her the courtesy of telling her what he told Whitlea, especially since she was also apparently was _just a friend_.

"Yeah, I think they will," smiled Blair, running a hand sheepishly through his hair, his normal action when embarrassed, "Cheren always was braver than me when it comes to girls."

Bianca swivelled her head to look at him curiously, "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," said Blair quickly, a little too quickly, to be honest.

Bianca smirked - slightly uncharacteristically compared to her normally demure self - sitting up again for the second time in a couple of minutes so she could look at him more directly, "Looks like Blair here has a little crush on someone," she remarked teasingly, causing him to nearly fall off the chair in surprise, "I wonder who the lucky girl is?"

Blair snorted and leaned back, as far away from her as possible, muttering something gently under his breath, just about too quiet for her to hear.

"What was that?" she asked, now even more curious than ever.

"You don't want to know." He answered bluntly, attempting to leave little room for discussion.

"Why? Is it someone I don't like?" she teased.

"For some reason I doubt that a lot." He snorted again, standing up and picking up his bag, "In any case, you seem to be feeling a lot better now, so I guess I'd better go."

Bianca scowled, before jumping up and lunging at him. Despite the fact that he was bigger than her by about a head after his recent growth spurt, she managed to quickly drag him over to her bed and throw him on it during his momentary surprise, promptly followed by jumping on top of him to prevent him from getting up again. "Now you've just made me curious," she told him, crouching on his chest, hands placed on either side of his head for support, as she had used to do back when they were kids, "You're not getting up until you tell me who it is."

Blair blushed, "Uh, aren't we a little old for this Bianca?"

"Doesn't matter," smirked Bianca, though his observation also brought a light blush to her face, and made her all too aware of just how well-developed he was becoming through his deep blue jacket, "I'm still not letting you up until you tell me who it is."

"Don't push me Bi," he mock-growled, now using his old childhood nickname for her, though nowadays only Whitlea actually used it, and only when they were in private. Her eyes widened in shock, surprised that he still remembered it.

It was at this moment in time - while she was just sitting there with a temporary break in her concentration - that he struck, wiggling as hard as he could and doing his utmost to get his hands free. She grimaced, likewise doing her best to stay on top. The combined effects of their actions did not proceed as either of them were expecting. Instead of shoving Bianca off, Blair only managed to upset her balance, causing her to fall down flat, right up against his body, faces so close that their noses were touching.

If they had been blushing before, it was nothing compared to the redness of their faces now. Bianca felt as if her head would catch fire, so hot was her face feeling at the moment. Though she knew that she should be getting off him as quickly as possible, and preferably removing herself to the other side of the room, she had to admit that this felt quite nice, with his arms around her (probably trying to decide whether to push her off or not), as her green eyes stared down into his deep brown ones...

Blair coughed nervously, jolting her out of her reverie. "Well I suppose, now that you've lead me into this awkward situation," his expression turned to a sort of nervous grin, "I might as well give in and **show** you who it is." And so saying, he promptly leaned up and closed the distance between them, before closing his eyes and kissing her, right on the lips.

Bianca was too shocked to respond a first, only able to unconsciously relax into his arms and return the kiss. Her brain promptly decided to desert her, collapsing into a jumble of conflicting thoughts:  
>"(He's kissing me!)"<br>"(But he shouldn't!)"  
>"(Why not?)"<br>"(You were just moping about Cheren a few minutes ago!)"  
>"(But this is Blair!)"<br>"(You don't even like him that way anymore!)"  
>"(Yes I do!)"<br>"(No you don't!)"

Her internal conflict distracted her so much, that she didn't even notice that he had broken away and slipped out from underneath her, and was now standing in the corner of the room, looking very embarrassed.

"I shouldn't have done that," he half-whispered, almost aghast.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, you're probably still upset about Cheren. Heck you've had a fairly obvious crush on him for ages now, so it's not exactly difficult to tell who you're actually interested in. Even if that wasn't the case, it was hardly the best time to be making a move, just after you've been crying and looking for a friend for comfort. Not to mention the fact that I seemed to think that kissing you was the best way to start a relationship, rather than asking you out or something sensible like that." He ran a hand through his hair again, "It's not like this is a movie or anything."

"It's ok Blair..." She responded hesitantly, her brain still giddy from the kiss.

"No it isn't." He replied bluntly, "I bet that you were just going along with it because you wanted to forget the pain for a little while." He sighed, "I couldn't be in a rebound relationship with you Bianca: it would destroy our friendship." he explained, somewhat bitterly.

She did not reply. His words had cut right into her, leaving her second guessing herself. Why did she accept his kiss? Was she just trying to forget her sorrows for a little while?

Blair smiled softly, "I'm sorry, I've probably just hurt us both doing that," he apologised, moving towards the door, "I'd better go, before this gets even more awkward."

Bianca sighed as he left; she was still very confused, not sure of how she was feeling. Sure, it was a bit sudden for Blair to suddenly be kissing her out of nowhere, like one of those clichéd movies or romance novels, but it had felt kind of... right. She knew that Blair was probably correct when he said that it wasn't the best time, but then again, is there ever a best time to start dating one of your best friends? She frowned. This was going nowhere; she needed some advice. On the plus side, now that she was sure of his feelings, it was now safe to call one of her other best friends – her normal first point of call.

"Hi!" Said Whitlea, answering the phone almost as soon as it started ringing, her voice sounding incredibly cheerful for some reason.

"Sounds like something good must have happened to you today," Bianca commented wryly.

"I know! Cheren just asked me out! He said that something just happened that finally gave him the courage to admit his feelings. Isn't that great?" laughed Whitlea, who apparently hadn't noticed when Bianca had taken a liking to him too (seriously, was it 'admit your hidden feelings' day today?).

"Wow! I'm very happy for you!" Smiled Bianca, and she meant it. She knew that they were good together, and as soon as Cheren had told her about his crush, it had been obvious that she didn't have a chance with him. She sighed, in some ways happy, but in other ways upset about recent events.

"Bi? Is there something wrong?" asked her friend, who appeared to have heard the sigh, and the accompanying wistfulness in it.

"It's nothing." Bianca answered, before eventually relenting and deciding to tell her the details, "It's just that Blair kissed me today."

"Really? So he finally got around to it then?" said Whitlea, excited, but not surprised in the slightest.

"Wait. You knew?" asked Bianca, now wondering if his crush had been as obvious as her one for Cheren was to Blair. That could be awkward...

"Of course. Why else do you think he was spending so much time talking to me? He was after advice on how to ask you out." she explained impatiently.

"Oh..."

"Anyway, what did you say to him?"

"Err, well, you see..." Bianca answered, having decided to tell Whitlea what had happened that day first and then worry about the consequences after, and so was attempting to sort out the events in her mind, "I had kind of called him earlier today because I was upset."

"What? You were upset? Why? And why didn't you call me?" asked Whitlea, a mixture of concern because Bianca was upset (which would involve a lengthy bout of crying if she knew her as well as she thought) and hurt in her voice from being rejected in favour of someone else, and a boy at that.

Bianca sighed, "Well, I suppose all I can say in my defence is that with the previous events that day, Blair was a better choice at the time."

At Whitlea's pause, where she was evidently attempting to make sense of this confusing nugget of information, Bianca continued, "You see, I'd erm, had a crush on err... Cheren," ending in a tiny voice barely loud enough to be audible. "Anyway," she said, briskly launching into the next part of the story before Whitlea could launch into a no doubt high-pitched exclamation at this statement, "earlier that day, I had decided to tell him how he felt, and well, I think you can guess what he said..."

"Oh no..." said Whitlea, her voice filled with heartfelt sympathy.

"Since Cheren already told me that he liked you, I thought it would be bit awkward to call you. Sorry."

"It's alright, I understand."

"In any case, I eventually told Blair why I was upset, he sort of attempted to comfort me, then we wound up talking about you and Cheren, and then he said something about how Cheren was better than him with girls..."

"Ah..." came Whitlea's voice, and Bianca could imagine the smirk that was probably on her face as she said that. "I'm guessing you realised then?"

"Not quite. I guessed that meant that he was interested in someone, and then I tried to force him to tell who it was, and then he – kissed me."

Whitlea could probably hear the tone of worry in her voice, because she said, "and then?" in an encouraging way.

"He pulled away, apologised, and left." replied Bianca shortly.

"And you let him?" said Whitlea, sounding scandalised.

"I was confused!" she said defensively, "I didn't even know he liked me until he kissed me!"

This outburst was followed by silence for several seconds. Whitlea was probably trying to work out what to say next. Eventually came the response, "Ok then, so you were confused at the time. I get that. I suppose the best thing to ask would be how you feel now. I mean at least you used to like him, before you liked Cheren, right?"

"I suppose..."

"Do you still feel that way about him?" demanded Whitlea.

"Maybe?" said Bianca sheepishly. This wasn't helping at all!

"Argh!" yelled her brunette friend. "You are hopeless! Ok, forget about exactly what you feel. How do you feel about him?"

"Well... he's pretty kind and very sweet, and he's always happy to help me out," she mused, "On the other hand, those are traits that you would look for in a friend. I suppose he's kinda cute when he's blushing, and I guess he's is pretty good-looking..."

"And?" her friend asked testily, quickly growing impatient about the lack of a proper answer, "how does that make you feel about him? After all, it's not a question of what you think of him. It's how you feel about him. Do you suddenly feel warm and excited when you think of him? Do you try to spend as much time as possible with him, and then feel a little disappointed when one of you has to leave? Can you not help but find everything about him to be really cute, even when you should find it really annoying?"

"You sound like you got that out of a romance novel," commented Bianca.

"So what if I did?" asked Whitlea, sounding a little embarrassed. "It's still relevant. I guess what it's asking is, do you think of Blair as a friend?" she said in a low voice, and Bianca got the general impression that she was probably holding the phone tightly against her ear, "Or is he something, more? I can understand if it turns out you're not interested anymore, but for the love of Mew," she suddenly exclaimed exasperatedly, causing Bianca to jump and nearly drop the phone, "at least sort out your own feelings!"

Bianca sighed again. "I'm sorry Whitlea; I just can't figure it out. Can we talk about something else?"

"Such as?"

"I don't know. When did you first start liking Cheren?" asked Bianca, picking a random subject off the top of her head.

Whitlea seemed pleased at the subject choice, as she wasted no time launching into an explanation, "Well, you know that fair we went to last Christmas? Over in Accumula Town? Remember how we had to split up?"

Bianca smiled at the memory, "Yeah, I was feeling ill after seeing the haunted house, so you and Cheren went on ahead. I never did have the stomach for that sort of thing."

Her friend laughed, "No you don't, do you? Well, it got pretty cold that night, and since I was only wearing a thin jacket, I was shivering like crazy. Cheren just took off his coat like it was nothing and gave it to me, and then he bought us both some hot chocolate from a stall. I just remember feeling like I was the only person in the world in his eyes at the time, and I suppose I decided that I wanted to feel like that all of the time instead." Her voice was warm, obviously lost in memories of that night.

Bianca thought back to the fair too. She remembered that Blair had elected to look after her until she was feeling better (in hindsight, she probably could have realised that he liked her back then if she had paid more attention to the gesture). She remembered being buried in his arms, sitting by a bay, as she waited for the world to stop looking so shaky, and attempting to suppress the shivers that were running through her body, partly due to the cold, and partly due to adrenaline leftover from her frightful experience earlier.

Blair, for his part, had been the perfect gentleman, not complaining even once about the time he was losing at the fair by looking after her, and when she decided that she was still feeling pretty ill and had probably seen enough of the fair for that year, he had walked her home, and – since her parents were out – spent the night over just to make sure that she was ok.

She remembered how later that night, she had woken up from a nightmare of one of the particularly scary exhibits in the haunted house, shivering and sweating like crazy and barely resisting the urge to scream, she had been surprised to find herself being hugged by Blair, who explained that he heard her moaning in her sleep and had got out of bed to attempt to comfort her. She couldn't remember ever feeling so safe before in all her life...

Suddenly, she realised just what her answer to her question was. "Sorry, I have to go," she told Whitlea, "it's urgent."

Her friend sounded a little disgruntled, "What? Right in the middle of my story? Can't it wait?"

"Sorry, but no. I need to catch Blair."

"Oh, so finally figured out what to say to him then?" her friend remarked, amused, "Well, good luck then! I'll be rooting for you!" she cheered, before hanging up.

Bianca quickly put on the put down the phone and rushed out of her room. Once downstairs, she didn't even pause to say goodbye to her parents or explain where she was going before running out of the door, only stopping to put on her shoes and grab her Pokémon. It was true that there probably wasn't any massive amount of hurry, but it was starting to get late and now that she understood how she felt, she wanted to tell him as quickly as possible.

Finding Blair was easier said than done. He could be anywhere by now. He could have gone home, went up North to Accumula, or could even have flown off on his Braviary. Despite this, she still smiled. Though it was true that there was plenty of places that Blair could have went, there was one place where she was pretty sure she could find him. Wasting no time, she began dashing north.

After she had woken up from the nightmare, she hadn't been able to go back to sleep, so he had offered to take her on a walk. She had agreed, so they left her house and walked north, to Route 1. At first she had thought that they were just going to go on a stroll and enjoy the night air, but it turned out that he had a specific destination in mind. He had taken her back to the small bay that they had originally visited after leaving the fair. Though she recognised it as being the bay you had to cross to get to Route 17, she hadn't known why they were going there. He told her that he often went there when he was by himself to think and be alone with nature. He said that he found it very calming, and she certainly agreed, as it had only been a few minutes of staring at the placid waters before she started feeling tired, which unfortunately meant he was forced to carry her back. If Blair was anywhere, that would be where he was.

Sure enough, as the cove slowly drew into view, Blair's familiar silhouette, backlit by the sunset, could be seen standing by the shore, skimming stones across the surface. Bianca smiled slightly to herself. He was pretty good at it. Guess it made sense considering how much time he spent by the sea. It certainly explained why he was always seemed able to hit the vital point on the Pokémon he was trying to capture.

She quietly approached, doing her best not to be noticed by her unaware companion. Stooping to pick up a nice flat stone, she carefully took aim, and then somehow managed to lose her balance just as she threw it, letting out a slight yelp as she pin wheeled to stay on her feet.

Blair jumped at the sound of her voice, and span on the spot, "Bianca!" he gasped, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" He looked uneasy, which probably meant that the subject of their conversation earlier that day was still firmly embedded in his mind. "Anyway, why are you here?" he asked after a short pause, shifting uncomfortably.

She smiled softly, "I think you know," was her response.

He ran a hand through his hair again, looking down so his cap covered his eyes, which irked her, though she didn't say anything about it: she quite liked looking into his eyes, "Look Bianca, I guess I wasn't really thinking clearly then. I guess I'm sorry if I've made things awkward between us, but I couldn't help it."

"It's ok..." she replied hesitantly.

"No it isn't." He remarked, glancing up to look in her eyes directly, "I can't afford to hurt our friendship by taking stupid risks like that. After all, isn't a friendship at least better than nothing at all?"

She smiled softly and bit her lip, "I suppose I can understand what you're saying. Sometimes it's easier just to take the safer path, just to avoid the risk of getting hurt. Just remember though, my parents didn't want me to leave home to become a trainer. They said I didn't know what I was getting into, and that it was 'too dangerous' for someone like me. Sure it was dangerous!" She laughed, throwing her hands up in the air, "we got attacked by wild Pokémon on a regular basis, and I had one of my Pokémon stolen, but look at me now! I have a team that I love very dearly, and have seen so many things I couldn't have hoped to see otherwise."

Blair didn't quite understand what she meant by that, "What are you trying to say?" he asked quietly, suddenly feeling a lot shyer than he had a few seconds ago.

"What I'm saying," she said confidently, though inwardly she was on the verge of a panic attack. She crossed the distance between them in a single step, before pulling him into a hug and gently kissing him, in a long and sweet embrace, eventually pulling away and smiling at his absolutely dumbstruck expression, "is that if you take every opportunity you are given, it sometimes leads to results far beyond what you could ever have expected."

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><p><strong>So how was it? Feel free to review, even if it's just to flame me about the pairing or something. At least that way I can tell if someone's actually reading it rather than just clicking on the link and going back... If you can, please give some advice on how I could improve. Every little helps!<strong>


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